The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 12, 1990, Image 4

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    The Battalion
LIFESTYLES
Monday, February 12,1990
Lifestyles Editor Mary-Lynne Rice 845-2
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Pulitzer playwright Albee to direct
Alley Theater reprisal of his play
By CHIP SOWDEN
Of The Battalion Staff
Playwright Edward Albee, author
of the internationally-famed play
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
will direct Houston’s Alley Theater
presentation of his play Tuesday at 8
p.m. in Rudder Auditorium.
The play is a presentation of the
MSG Opera and Performing Arts
Society.
College Station is the first stop on
the Alley Theater’s 23-city national
^.tour that also will continue in Lithu
ania and Leningrad.
The tour is a part of the Alley’s
outreach program, which is de
signed to get more people interested
in theater, said Colin Martin, public
relations manager for the Alley.
“We want to make the Alley acces
sible to everyone,” Martin said,
“(and the outreach program) is won
derful on an international level.”
He said the three performances in
Lithuania were scheduled by the
government there in “a kind of
statement of their independence.”
No stranger to controversy, the
1962 play was the subject of outrage
by many critics when the Pulitzer
Prize advisory board didn’t choose
“Virginia Woolf’ for the award,
even though the drama jury had rec
ommended it.
In fact, the caustic dialogue and
subject matter of the play were so
controversial that Mike Nichols’ Os
car-winning 1966 screen adaptation
carried an X rating.
Although he has since won two
Pulitzer prizes, Albee said he still
feels that he won the award for “Vir
ginia Woolf,” since qualified judges
voted to award it to him.
Albee’s play has since become a
modern American classic and is per
formed frequently around the
world.
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?” is the story of the strange
relationship between Martha, the
frustrated, middle-aged daughter of
a college president, and her hus-
as a distinguished lecturer.”
The simplified story line of the
play belies its complexity and allu
sions.
Although Albee describes the play
as “very straightforward,” the plot
tends to contradict viewers’ expecta
tions as it unfolds.
In this way, the play draws the au
dience inside it and commands its
full attention.
“There is nothing in ‘Virginia
Woolf that a bright audience can’t
it
I hate those terms. I don’t like to be categorized that
way. If anything is at all complex and interesting, you
just can’t do it.”
— Edward Albee,
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
band, George, a thwarted history
professor at the college.
After a faculty party, George and
Martha have an ambitious, newly-
hired biology instructor and his wife
over for a nightcap.
The ensuing all-night drinking
marathon leads to cruel and shock
ing confrontations among the char
acters.
The play is about the politics sur
rounding academia, in which Albee
has become involved as distin
guished professor of drama at the
L niversity of Houston.
Because he dropped out of Trin
ity College at Hartford in his sopho
more year, Albee says, “I find it very
amusing that I’m what is referred to
understand,” Albee said. But it can
be challenging.
In their efforts to understand Al
bee, critics often have called him an
absurdist, a label to which Albee ob
jects.
“I hate all those terms,” he said. “I
don’t like to be categorized that way.
If anything is at all complex and in
teresting, you just can’t do it.”
But Albee said he believes that his
play’s complexity should not be
overshadowed by his directing.
“Everything should vanish in a good
production,” he said.
Directing, lighting and acting
should not call attention to them
selves in such a way that they would
be an impediment to the audience
being drawn into the action, he said.
Since Albee is directing his own
play, they Alley Theater’s produc
tion should come very close to the
most accurate rendition possible —
the play the author sees and hears in
his mind as it is being written, Albee
said.
He said the main difference be
tween this production and the other
versions of his play is in the balance
of humor and seriousness.
In other versions, as in the movie,
the element of hilarity largely was
missing, he said.
Among Albee’s many awards are
the Tony, New York Critic’s Circle
and Outer Circle prizes he won for
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”.
He also has won Pulitzer Prizes for
“A Delicate Balance” (1966) and
“Seascape” (1975).
Charles Gordone, distinguished
lecturer in Texas A&M’s depart
ment of speech communication and
theater arts, said, “(Albee) is one of
the best playwrights of our time.
“There are some of his plays that
will be just as good tomorrow as they
were yesterday. And that’s the mea
sure of a good playwright.” Gordone
is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning play
wright.
Albee’s Alley staging of “Virginia
Woolf’ will star Carol Mayo Jenkins,
(of “Fame”), and Bruce Gray in the
roles of Martha and George.
The other two roles will be played
by John Ottavino and Cynthia
Bassham.
For more information, call the
Rudder Box Office at 845-1234.
Boring 4 Loose Cannons’ misses target
ByTODDSTONE
Of The Battalion Staff
Relying on the overused buddy-
cop story and receiving mediocre
performances by Gene Hackman
and Dan Aykroyd, “Loose Cannons”
is simply a predictable and boring
movie.
The filmmakers try to scrape to
gether some originality by giving
one of the cops a multiple personal
ity disorder. Aykroyd plays the split-
personality cop, Ellis Fielding, who
turns into characters ranging from
Pee Wee Herman to Dirty Harry.
Hackman stars as Mac Stern, the
typical and tough “I’ll bend the rules
if I have to” kind of cop.
The filmmakers promote: “Mac
Stern is facing the greatest challenge
of his career ... his partner.” How
ever, they also should include a
warning: “The audience vl'ill face the
greatest challenge of their movie
going careers ... staying awake dur
ing the movie.”
Stern and Fielding are assigned to
a solve a series of murders, which
leads them to a race against German
mercenaries for an old film of sexual
exploits starring Adolf Hitler.
The idea may sound interesting,
but the Hitler slant is merely a moti
vational plot device that is barely al
luded to throughout the movie.
Fielding is a natural at deductive
analysis, but he changes characters
any time violence or excitement oc
curs.
Further, when fielding freaks
out, Aykroyd doesn’t make it funny.
He just doesn’t have the comedic
range to play all his personality char
acters convincingly. Screenwriters
Police detectives played by Gene Hackman and
Dan Aykroyd join forces with an Israeli secret
service agent played by Nancy Travis in “Loose
Cannons.”
LOOSE CANNONS
Starring Gene Hackman and Dan
Aykroyd
Directed by Bob Clark
Rated R
Richard Christian Matheson, Bob
Clark and Richard Matheson de
serve part of the blame for the lack
of one-liners and the hfatantly con
trived plot direction.
They use the typical Hollywood
recipe for cop movies but forgot the
spices: two cops become friends,
they chase the bad guys and catch
them. The result is bland. What the
“Loose Cannons” recipe desperately
needs is a jalapeno or two of origi
nality.
Director Bob Clark (“Porky’s” and
“From The Hip”) doesn’t do any
thing new with the action sequences,
but there isn’t anything new in the
story to motivate him.
Hackman appears bored during
the movie, and one has to wonder
why he took this part for any other
reason but a pay check with a lot of
zeros. Aykroyd tries hard, but he
can’t effectively portray all the per
sonalities the script requires of him.
Nancy Travis’ (“Internal Affairs”)
presence is wasted as an Israeli se
cret agent. She should get better op
portunities in the future. Dom DeL-
uise does nothing special as Harry
“The Hippo” Gutterman.
Indeed, the entire movie is noth
ing special. The filmmakers seemed
to throw it together to see how much
money they could get. Fortunately,
the slow death by boredom ends af
ter an hour and a half of screen
time.
“Loose Cannons” lacks the origi
nality or the punch that a cop movie
needs to be entertaining. It doesn’t
knock you out, but you still end up
asleep.
Love story with a conscience:
‘Stanley and Iris’ warm, hones.
By TODD STONE
Of The Battalion Staff
It’s a movie-goer’s dream; Jane
Fonda and Robert De Niro star
ring together in a motion picture.
In the film “Stanley and Iris,”
dreams do come true as Fonda
and De Niro bring warmth and
depth to the characters of this
touching love story.
Fonda stars as Iris, a middle-
age widow working at a bakery
factory. De Niro plays Stanley,
who works at the same factory as
a cook.
They meet when Iris' purse is
stolen one day. Stanley tries to
help, but arrives too late.
A friendship slowly develops
between the two, but Stanley is of
ten distant.
He won’t sign his name for the
return of his repaired shoes. 01
share the message from his for
tune cookie.
When Stanley can’t distinguish
a bottle of Rolaids from the Tyle
nol Iris asked for, his secret is re
vealed: Stanley can’t read.
Stanley’s illiteracy is disturbing.
He is intelligent, honest and a
hard worker. Yet he can’t get any
where without asking, he doesn’t
have a driver’s license or a bank
account, and he can’t read a
newspaper.
Without
Stanley i
ashamed.
Desperate, he asks Iris to teat h
him to read, and during the into
play between Stanley and Ins as
student and teat her, a romance
develops.
STANLEY AND IRIS
Starring Robert DeNiro and Jan;
Fonda
Directed by Martin Ritt
Rated PG-13
the ability u> read,
» incomplete and
Still, Iris must deal with the
memory of her husband, and
Stanley must gain self-confidence
to overcome the difficulties and
frustrations of learning how to
read.
Fonda and De Niro are engag
ing and believable on-screen. De
Niro is especially effective as a
man dealing with illiteracy.
Iris’s motivation to help Stan
ley isn’t clear, but Fonda skillfully
and naturally projects the suffer
ing Iris endures as a working
mother and widow.
Stanley and Ins balances two
themes and lies them togetherni-
te l>-
Fitst. the film deftly projects
the societal problem of illiteracy.
De Niro’s portrayal of an illiterate
man is moving. Second, the film
is a love story that offers hope
without a fairy tale ending, and
tendei ness without beingsappv.
It’s fun seeing Fonda and De
Niro m a simple movie about two
people, instead of in some big
production that might over
shadow t heir talents.
Direclot Martin Ritt is no fool,
I he movie is about Stanley and
Ins, and the audience interest is
in Fonda and De Niro; thus. the\
get all the screen time. With
Fonda and De Niro’s strong per-
foi mant es. it’s a smart move. Still,
time sequences are occasionally
murky, and the explanations for
the c haracters’ ac tions are some
times lac king.
Sc reenwritei s Harriet Fran!
Jr and Irving Ravetch could have
concentrated mote on Stanley
and Iris’ transition between being
friends to being lovers, but Fonda
and De Niro bring the necessary
depth to the relationship, fhey
carry the load and do it with ease.
“Stanley and It is" is an enter
laining love story with a con-
sc ience. D< ni l miss it.
Dr. Demen to celebrates
20 years of crazy radio
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—-Who is
that mad-hatted man and what is he
doing on the radio?
Let him speak for himself.
“Whooo, whooo, whooo, wind up
your ears, dementites and demen-
toids! It’s time for the Dr. Demento
Show’ with m a d music a n d
craaaaaaaazy comedy from out of
the archives and off the wall!”
Toot toot goes his toy horn, and
Dr. Demento — a.k.a. Barrett L.
“Barry” Hansen — is off to a nu-
thead start.
The Dr. Demento Show, heard
from Alabama to Antarctica, is the
only major radio outpost for wacko
recordings ranging from “The Pur
ple People Eater" to rap-scratchin’
takeoffs on “Star Trek.”
Every week, the show is on 193
commercial radio stations through
the Westwood One Radio Networks,
and on 35 college stations and about
500 Armed Forces Network stations
on ships or bases.
Hansen — whose trademark is a
tux and top hat — is celebrating 20
years on commercial radio.
Hansen isn’t really a doctor, but if
anyone were handing out Ph.D.’s in
Music of All Persuasions, he would
be first in line.
His knowledge of music spans the
Magazine collector catalogues offbeat specialty publications
RENSSELAER, NY. (AP) —
Thousands of magazines are piled
throughout Michael Gunderloy’s
home. But don’t ask him to pull out
a copy of Newsweek or Reader’s Di
gest. They’re too conventional.
However, he’ll gladly produce
American Window Cleaner, a trade
journal for those who squeegee for a
living.
Or Gunderloy can find his copy of
Civilian Defense: News & Opinion, a
newsletter put out by those who be
lieve in creating a national defense
by training Americans in non-violent
non-cooperation with any invader.
There's always Chokehold, a
wrestling magazine. Daily Cow is a
humor magazine written from the
animal’s point of view. And Frostbite
Falls Far-Flung Flier features the
cartoon characters Rocky and Bull-
winkle.
“It has happened that the Rensse
laer post office has sent me stuff just
because it looks flaky and they don’t
know who else to send it to,” says
Gunderloy.
Gunderloy collects the magazines
for his own journal, Factsheet Five,
the bible of the underground, or al
ternative press. Published five times
a year, Factsheet Five contains re
views of as many of this country’s es
timated 6,000 self-published mag
azines as Gunderloy can get his
hands on.
Anyone with access to a copier
theoretically can become a pub
lisher, and many people do. Gun
derloy says the alternative press,
once thought the province of 1960s
radicals plotting campus takeovers,
flourished in the 1980s.
He calls them “zines.” That’s short
for fanzines. But although many
publications show slavish devotion to
certain rock bands, others cover far
different territories in politics and
the arts.
Gunderloy has set aside his chemi
cal engineering degree to give his
full energies to his marginally profit
able newsletter. His wife, a physics
professor, helps pay the bills.
He chronicles publications with
names like Filth, The Lame Monkey-
Manifesto, Nuclear Mutinous Dogs
and The Occasional Journal of
Nothing in Particular with obsessive
detail, in print so small it’s almost
painful to read.
Zines range in size from slick mu
sic publications like Maximum Rock
’n’ Roll and Flip Side, with 15,000
circulations, to The Colleen Scene, a
newsletter with a circulation of one,
put out by a California woman.
“She types it on demand — every
one gets an original copy,” Gunder
loy says. “It’s mostly rambling about
what she did that day and what she
heard on the radio.”
Music zines routinely trumpet
bands, such as the heavy-metal fa
vorites Metallica, long before they
become popular.
to make too many newsstands.
Cartoonists use the zines as a
proving ground. Many, Gunderloy
says, are mainly interested in prov
ing how shocking they can be. Gun
derloy suspects the controversy over
Robert Mapplethorpe’s govern
ment-sponsored homosexual art
caused many publications to push
the boundaries of obscenity as far as
possible.
In a strange way, Gunderloy says,
magazines tell him a lot about what’s
It has happened that the Rensselaer post office
has sent me stuff just because it looks flaky and they
don’t know who else to send it to.”
— Michael Gunderloy,
magazine collector
“There is a lot of talent out there
— in some cases waiting to be discov
ered and in some cases being discov
ered,” Gunderloy says.
Other zine culture probably will
remain underground.
The magazine Ripping Head
aches, with interviews with obscure
heavy metal rockers Fatal Blessing,
Devastation, and Vomit, is not likely
going on in the country.
Dozens of new publications pro
vide evidence of an upsurge in envi
ronmentalism, he says. The coun
try’s conservative drift through the
’80s was obvious in several alterna
tive college newspapers.
“I get the latest news from people
that might not have made it into The
New York Times — which 1 don’t
have time to read,” he says.
Gunderloy’s own press run is
nearly 7,000 per issue. He’ll list the
magazine of anyone who sends him
a copy and is available by phone.
While many zines try to entertain,
others try to inform, albeit in very
specialized fields. The Mandocru-
cian’s Digest is about people who
play the mandolin. Suds n’ Stuff is
the newsletter of Beer Drinkers In
ternational, while Jewish Vegetari
ans of North America is self-explan
atory.
Gunderloy says he’s impressed
with the quality of much of what he
gets, although he says, “I’ve also got
ten things from people who are
probably certifiably nuts.”
Factsheet Five also publishes po
etry reviews and keeps track of “cas
sette culture,” people who record
and distribute their own music.
Gunderloy wants eventually to
publish Factsheet Five, which began
as a two-page mimeographed sheet
and now stretches beyond 100
pages, every two months. He does it
largely himself, sitting behind a per
sonal computer and sitting through
his mail.
blues, folk classical, rock and iw-
eltv tunes. He occasionally helpsk
sev Kasem choose old songs for“5
sev s I op 40. introduced Weird,11
Yankovic to the world and ii"
ences other radio personalities.
“1 think he’s great, I love him,1«
been a tan tor years,” said Sat
Shannon, vice president and pro
gram director at both Weshp
One and Los Angeles’ Finite
(K.QLZ).
H ansen grew up in Minneapok!
where even at age 4 he could pi:
the fragile 78 rpm records by nil
sell on the family's gramophone.
His father, an arts aficionado
brought home some Spike Jones to
cords, including "Cocktails loi
Two.”
The 1945 recording starts with
man crooning about an “exquisi:
rendezvous,” but goes crazy nil
loud crashes, guns going off aid
people sci earning “Whoopee!"
“It planted the seed in my lili
brain which 25 years later becaffl
the ‘Dr. Demento Show,’ ’’ Hattst:
said.
Hansen got his start in radioi
Reed’s station, KRRC. After pad
uating in 1963, he took off for lit
“smogberry trees” of Los Angeb
He worked aia music club, did she:
stints as a roadie, produced a coup
of records ailcl put together re-isstn j
foi Specialty Records.
Hansen also took a masters a .
gree in Folk Music Studies at it*|
University of California at Los A*
geles and wrote record reviews 1
Rolling Stone.
At a party in 1970, he met t*
men who worked at KPPC, one
the new FM underground, progtf
sive radio stations that were popph
uj) around the country.
H ansen showed them his recof
collection —then about 40,Oft
strong — and was invited to do; '
oldies show.
H is first time behind the mike,1
played classics by Carl Perft
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and otta>
and threw in a nntty teen car cr^
tune, “Transfusion,” by Nervof
Norvus.
“Somebody said, ‘You’vegottok
demented to play that on then
dio,’ ” Hansen said. The name
Demento stuck.
Hansen moved to Los Angeb ’
KMET in 1971, went into syndic
tion in 1974 and watched radio
come more and more rigid in itsfo'
mat.
He switched to Los Angeb
KLSX in 1987, where he does ab
version of his show that’s sometiiwf
wilder than the syndicated, pre-n
corded program.
t